Sale, Residential suburb of Manchester,

Skelmersdale. Town in Lancashire. West of Wigan. It was designated a new town 1961, with many light industries, including electronics, engineering, textiles, rubber, and glass. It received some of the overspill from Merseyside.

St Helens. Town in Merseyside, 12 mi NE of Liverpool, and connected to the river Mersey by canal; It is a leading centre for the manufacture of sheet glass. Other industries include bricks and tiles, engineering, pharmaceuticals, and brewing.

Stockport. Town in Greater Manchester. The rivers Tame and Goyt join here to form the Mersey. Industries include electronics, chemicals, engineering, textile and electrical machinery, hats, paper, plastics, and still some cotton textiles.

Stretford. Town in Greater Manchester, It includes the Old Trafford cricket ground. There are engineering, chemical, and textile industries.

Wigan. Industrial town (food processing, engineering, paper) in Greater Manchester. The Wigan Alps are a recreation area with ski slopes and water sports created from industrial dereliction including colliery spoil heaps. Wigan Pier was made famous by the writer George Orwell in The Road to Wigan Pier 1932.

Warrington. Industrial town (metal goods, chemicals, brewing, iron foundry, tanning, engineering, high technology industries) in Cheshire, on the river Mersey. A trading centre since Roman times, it was designated a new town 1968. In 1993 bombs planted here by the Irish Republic Army (IRA) killed two boys (one a three-year-old, believed to be the youngest victim of IRA violence in Britain) and wounded more than 50 others, causing national outrage.